The latest from the National desk

Tennessee raccoon barbecue leads to (surprise!) a meth bust

October 29, 2011 | 7:10
am

Who among us hasn’t barbecued a raccoon in a Tennessee parking lot and then gotten caught up in a meth bust?

On Monday, Memphis, Tenn., police arrested 26-year-old Adam Eubank on suspicion of manufacturing methamphetamine after his brother, Alex Eubank, held a late-night critter cookout outside an apartment complex. That cookout drew the attention of the police.

Local TV channel KSDK interviewed the men’s less-than-terrified neighbors to get to the bottom of the story.

“They said they were using it [the fire] to dry their clothes,” added neighbor Chris Phillip, who told KSDK the brothers were known as “the squirrel brothers” for once skinning a squirrel in an apartment common area.

Several people were standing around the fire, KSDK reported, and there was a futon nearby; one man had large knives. When the police showed up, they noticed buckets containing some suspicious material, so they investigated Eubanks’ apartment.

Adam Eubank, who was inside the apartment, didn’t let the police in and didn’t answer questions, according to an affidavit provided to The Times. They arrested him after discovering he’d bought pseudoephedrine — a cold medicine that’s a key ingredient in meth — 35 times in a year.